Arriving at a decision isn’t enough. What?
I begin one of the Supervisory Skills training Workshops on Decision Making and Problem-Solving with the statement “There’s more to solving problems than arriving at an answer.”
I also point out that too many times, committees convened to come up with a solution to a problem may support a proposed solution; not because the proposed course of action is correct; but rather because they are mentally exhausted and tired of the subject.
Point Being? You heard it before: “There’s more to solving problems than arriving at an answer.”
For example, consider the scenario of a bunch of mice with a common enemy…a cat, and not just any cat but a big, scary cat. How to deal with the cat was a big problem. The mice came up with a bunch of ideas on how to deal with the cat but none were universally supported. That was until a young mouse suggested having the cat wear a bell around its neck. The noise would then alert the mice ahead of the cat. Everybody was onboard with the idea until the old, wise mouse asked who would put the bell on the cat. The moral was, according to Google, “It’s easy to propose impossible remedies.”
And, possibly another moral is “a solution that is only spoken or written, without action, is only words”.
Now my story/my moral (stolen from Benjamin Franklin). The next time you are invited to be on a committee to solve a problem, pause long enough to consider the other participants
Another story with a possible lesson: “Once upon a time, two wolves asked a lamb to be on their committee to decide what was for dinner that night ….”
You have to take it from here. Ha. Gotcha.
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